Christopher wrote:
> I wonder if Corb can come from PIE *kor-wo- "growing" adolescent (a
> derivative of *ker- "to grow") which has given us Greek kore ("girl"),
> kouros/koros ("boy, son"), and Dioskouroi.
” CorrŠin/Maguire give the name as Corbb, i.e. with unlenited b which would exclude a derivation from *korwo-. I
wonder if there are any rhyming examples to support this.
It has been suggested (e.g. in LEIA) that corbaid "to defile" be a loan from Latin corrumpere. That's fine from the
phonological point of view, but in that case the noun/adjective corb, if it is related to corbaid at all, must be a back-
formation, an analogically formed "quasi-derivational base" for the verb corbaid. I don't know of any other such case.
Since corb is frequent in names from an early time on (there are several examples among the Ogam inscriptions), it is
hardly a Latin loan.
BTW, I just see that the name CORBBIMAQQI, obviously the preform of Cormac, is attested on Ogam. Therefore I
have to draw back the reservations about its etymology I expressed the other day.
David